Thursday, August 6, 2009

The 3:15 Acela to New York!



After a short car ride and kisses goodbye (I will really miss my husband and sweet little lab) I am the last to board the "Limo" to the train station in downtown Boston. The only seat available is in the back, of course, and next to the toilet, OF COURSE. Even though I always leave way too early when I travel, I don't want to miss this bus so I take the seat. Two and a half hours later I board the "quiet car" on the NYC bound, 3:15 Amtrak Acela. I love the train. And, I love the quiet car on the train as do many other people which is why you have to run to it as everybody is boarding. I can sit for 3 1/2 hours reading, thinking, leafing through my magazines, just looking out the window in the quiet car. There is no TV, no radio, no computer in front of me. The phone is not allowed. Talking is not allowed above a whisper.

The train travels along the coast for much of the trip. We speed by beaches where people are laying in the sun or braving the freezing waters of the Atlantic Ocean. We fly by train stations with our horn blowing. I'm on the Acela Train so we have limited stops. I love the lime green marsh grass that is everywhere houses aren't. Towns such as Mystic are picturesque with their harbors full of sailboats at this time of the year.

As we zip along I think about my friend, Alice, who has haunted me since her recent death. My husband told me that he had another story about her for me. Apparently, in the year or so before her death she took some of the little money she had and had a facelift. And, it disfigured her. She tried to have it repaired, unsuccessfully. Poor Alice I think as the train speed beyond Massachusetts, where she died, and onto Rhode Island.

I start to notice old tires piled up high on the side of the train tracks. I see rusted car parts, broken toilets, just plain piles of garbage and I knew we are near New York. As I look around I notice a "Bronx" sign. Shortly thereafter we are in the tunnels of Penn Station and the train pulls to a stop. I'm ready for my New York City visit!

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